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The Lightning Strike • November-December 2010
Page 9
CHINA
Exchange student lives life at Krop by Stephanie Liu spread editor Among the 3200 students at Krop sits one girl with almond –shaped eyes studying for the TOEFL, an English proficiency test. She often has her English/ Chinese dictionary in hand as she stumbles through the halls to her classes. Senior Ma Bowen is a foreign exchange student from Shangdong, a city located in the Jinan Province of China. She arrived at the United States in Aug. and has since been adjusting to life in America. In China, Ma attended the Attached Senior School of Shangdong Normal University (SDNU), high school that is connected to a university. SDNU has inter-school exchange links with 51 schools in 13 countries. It is one of the first groups of universities approved by the Ministry of Education of China to enroll international students, including those who hold Chinese government’s scholarships. SDNU’s exchange program has a long and competitive selection process that includes tests and interviews.
“I really had to prove that I wanted to go by demonstrating my academic abilities and English speaking skills,” Ma said. Ma saw the exchange program as an opportunity for her to grow into a self-sufficient and independent person. “My parents didn’t want me to be a typical Chinese teenager who depended on her parents for everything until she got married,” Ma said. “Although they both miss me badly, they are really happy and proud that I was able to make it to the US.” Ma’s host family consists of a single mom, Maria Del Real, and her 7 year old daughter, Sophia Del Real. Maria Del Real became interested in Chinese culture when she studied in China five years ago; she wanted to host a student that could enrich her family culturally. “I adapted really well into her home,” Ma said. “Maria is extremely nice to me in that she is always trying to help get to know the place around me better. Her Colombian food is also really similar to Chinese food, mostly rice and vegetables.”
Student life at Krop surprised Ma; she was taken aback by the amount of freedom students have. In China, students follow strict rules such as the prohibition of hair no longer than shoulder length, no makeup or jewelry, and no tolerance for displays of affection on school grounds. Ma used to be flooded with so much schoolwork that she was up every night until one or two A.M. Now, she is able to maintain a healthy sleep cycle because of the shorter school hours compared to China. School in Shangdong ended around five p.m. during weekdays and three p.m. for Saturday classes. “We start the day with a half hour of silent reading/studying without a teacher,” Ma said. “Then the teacher arrives at eight a.m. and we start classes. We have six to seven classes per day in the same classroom.” Ma’s schedule includes AP classes such as AP Physics and AP Calculus AB. Although language barriers hinder Ma’s ability to excel in her classes, she had learned most of the material in China and is still able to do well. “My favorite class is
actually Spanish,” Ma said. “I really like learning foreign languages, and I hope to become an interpreter/ translator in the future.” Unlike the US, teachers do not have their own rooms in China. Rather, the students stay in one place and the teachers go from room to room. A regular class is made up of around 60 students who take the same classes together throughout high school. Principal Matthew Welker found the difference between schools in US and China fascinating. “They have a room full of teenagers in silent reading without an adult for half an hour?” Welker asked Ma. “That’s incredible.” Ma will attend Krop until June of next year. She is excited about senior graduation, wondering if it will be like the one shown in “typical American teen movies.” Of course I feel lonely and lost sometimes,” Ma said. “But I don’t regret coming here at all. I’ve learned so much in just four months. I hope to take in as much of this place before I go back home.”
AFRICA
From my perspective: Education in Ghana, Africa In My Opinion Alexandra
Garfinkle Managing Editor
In the middle of the sole ninth grade classroom at the SOS Children’s Village in Tema, Ghana, hangs half of a chalkboard. The other half of the severed board is across the school, in a Kindergarten classroom. Students sit with varying levels of attentiveness. They learn; some toy with their erasers as they think. I saw all this when, in the summer of 2009, I volunteered at New Life Orphanage in Ghana and taught at a nearby school located at the SOS Children’s Village, sponsored by a relief organization of the same name. Students wore uniforms, composed of khaki pants and pink shirts; some had shoes, some came to class barefoot.
As in the U.S., it takes an average of 20 years for a child to complete his or her entire education in Ghana. The system begins with six years of primary school and four years of middle school. Children start school, in theory, at age six.
But I believe the students do the best they can... That’s what it’s all about. - J. Kitching This, in practice, is not always the case, perhaps to due to the poverty that characterizes so much of Africa. If anything it is more of an ideal than a reality for a large, if indeterminate segment of Ghana’s population. According to the United Nations, the total literacy rate is 74.8 percent and
the population lives on roughly $709 a year – slightly more than $1 a day. “We do the best we can with what we have,” a teacher at Ghana’s Rosharon Montessori School said. “We try not to think about the worst of it, but sometimes it’s just right in front of us, like all the children without food. It’s painful.” Painful. That is the word best used to describe the experiences of many children – and it is the plight of the children that is most poignant. When I was teaching, I became close to a child named Godwin. Named after an 18th century philosopher, he was found in a graveyard. No one knows how old he is and he didn’t start school until came to New Life Orphanage at an estimated eight years old. According to the Ghana Education Service, this is unfortunately more common than not. There is an initiative, known as the Universal
Primary Education Completion initiative, that is meant to combat this issue. It pledges to ensure that all primary school age children their education by 2015. Enrollment at the primary level, however, is not increasing with the speed and efficiency necessary to complete the initiative by 2015. As I was leaving Ghana, Godwin leaped into the van I was in, latching onto my leg, crying, “Don’t leave me!” The trouble, of course, is that we do tend to leave Africa’s education alone – and it’s the children who pay the price. “The education of a child in Africa is just as important as the education of one in the U.S. We have a lot we are up against,” English teacher J. Kitching, who works at Tema’s SOS HermannGmeiner International College, said. “But I believe the students do the best they can, often exceeding expectations. That’s what it’s all about.”
INTERNATIONAL TESTING
2010 PISA Results The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development released the 2009 results of its PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) test, which tested 15-year-old students in 65 countries. China outscored all participating regions in the Math, Science, and Reading sections.
PISA Score
MATH Shanghai, China Singapore Hong Kong, China Korea Taiwan Finland
600 562 555 546 543 541
Liechtenstein Switzerland Japan Canada Netherlands Macao, China New Zealand Belgium
536 534 529 527 526 525 519 515
Austrailia
514
Germany Estonia Iceland Denmark Slovania Norway France Slovakia AVERAGE SCORE Austria Poland Sweden Czech Republic Britain Hungary Luxembourg United States Ireland
514 512 507 503 501 498 497 497 497 496 495 494 493 492 490 489 487 487
READING
PISA Score
Shanghai, China Korea Finland Hong Kong, China Singapore Canada
556 539 536 533 526 524
New Zealand Japan Australia Netherlands Belgium Norway Estonia Switzerland
521 520 515 508 506 503 501 501
Poland
500
Iceland United States AVERAGE SCORE
500 500 494
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